Durable Orders, Home Resales Plunge; Jobless Claims Rise

A series of reports on the U.S. economy released Thursday continued to show the negative effects of the slowdown and the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Orders for durable goods plunged 8.5% to $165.44 billion, the lowest level since Aug. 1996, the Commerce Department said. This was the largest drop since January, and also the first time it declined for four straight months since records began in 1992.

Any drop in durable goods orders, which are manufactured goods expected to last at least three years, eventually reduces the amount of goods produced by U.S. factories for shipment by dry van and flatbed trucks.

Also Thursday, the Labor Department said that the number of people filing for unemployment benefits rose by 8,000 last week to 504,000, the second-highest figure in nearly a decade. The recent big increases pushed the four-week moving average for claims to 505,000, the highest point since March 1991.



Meanwhile, the National Association of Realtors said that sales of previously owned homes fell 11.7% in September to an annual pace of 4.89 million units. This was much larger than analysts expected, according to Bloomberg, and illustrates that consumers may be reconsidering plans to buy a house because of fears over the job market and the ongoing war on terrorism.

This is bad news for the trucking because when a family buys a house, they need trucks to deliver finished goods to fill it.

Commerce said the excluding the volatile transportation sector, durable goods orders fell 5.5% after rising 0.2% in August. Fewer orders for aircraft, computers and communications equipment spurred the overall decline. Orders for vehicles and parts fell 15.1%, following a 0.7% decline in August.

Analysts told Reuters that this report show that manufacturing, which was already in a serious slump before the attacks, was dealt another huge blow on Sept. 11.